Table Selection Menu

[Dogfaced]

Does anyone else think it would be cool if you selected the table in a virtual arcade like the Xbox 360 Hall of Fame game?

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

Perhaps, but I'd rather FarSight concentrate their limited time and resources on enhancing the actual tables and gameplay first.

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

Id like to see them in a rotating circle with 3 tables on screen at once and tables to left and right at 45degree angles showing cabinet art. I like the arcade from PHoFWC but Id like to move my machines where I want and Room for DLC tables later, maybe like the second story but not open till enough DLC released.

 

[Fungi]

I just want a grid of buttons with the backglass as said buttons.

 

[Brandon Debes]

For some other opinions on this topic, check out the Xbox 360 discussion of it that we had a while back.

 

[Dogfaced]

Perhaps, but I'd rather FarSight concentrate their limited time and resources on enhancing the actual tables and gameplay first.

Obviously the above is more important but would be a nice to have.

 

[Just Some Guy]

I don't know about a virtual arcade, but we're definitely getting to the point where the menu UI needs an overhaul. Swiping through the tables one at a time is getting pretty cumbersome now there are twelve of them.

 

[Brandon Debes]

I don't know about a virtual arcade, but we're definitely getting to the point where the menu UI needs an overhaul. Swiping through the tables one at a time is getting pretty cumbersome now there are twelve of them.

Switch to Xbox 360. It's much easier to cycle through the four original tables there without months' worth of DLC getting in the way.

 

[Richard B]

I don't know about a virtual arcade, but we're definitely getting to the point where the menu UI needs an overhaul. Swiping through the tables one at a time is getting pretty cumbersome now there are twelve of them.

I look forward to the day when I can complain that I have so many tables, it's taking too long to sort through them.

 

[dtown8532]

I look forward to the day when I can complain that I have so many tables, it's taking too long to sort through them.

Richard, I can understand why some people may not want to get a smart phone due to the monthly fees associated with them. This includes myself. If you really want to play the new tables why don't you buy a tablet or ipod touch? I would fully agree that it's not as nice as the console experience but it could be something to tide you over till they get here.

 

[Just Some Guy]

If you really want to play the new tables why don't you buy a tablet or ipod touch? I would fully agree that it's not as nice as the console experience but it could be something to tide you over till they get here.

I think that's probably too much for people unless they're really big Pinball fans. That said, I have a high-end PC hooked up to a large LCD with a wireless 360 controller for games, and I have no desire to pick up The Pinball Arcade for it. Playing The Pinball Arcade on my iPads, I don't enjoy the landscape orientation, and I doubt most people have the option of rotating their screens 90 degrees.

 

[Sean]

This app pushed me over the edge into getting an iPad. I originally learned of the mac version, but I'm not as keen to keep it current there because the iPad controls feel better and because it's clearly the mobile platforms being favoured. I am seriously thinking I'll end up with the Wii U version as the one for my tv.

On-topic, I also think an overhaul is due. I'd like something along the lines of iTunes with user-customisable sub-groupings.

 

[Richard B]

I think that's probably too much for people unless they're really big Pinball fans. That said, I have a high-end PC hooked up to a large LCD with a wireless 360 controller for games, and I have no desire to pick up The Pinball Arcade for it. Playing The Pinball Arcade on my iPads, I don't enjoy the landscape orientation, and I doubt most people have the option of rotating their screens 90 degrees.

There is no portrait mode, so they can't do it even if their screens support it. You can always just lie down, head in a sideways position. That's what I did for Ikaruga on GC, as well as the old Namco Museum titles for PS1.

 

[gooche77]

I think the Atari Greatest Hits menu style would suit the game perfectly.

 

[Sean]

I think the Atari Greatest Hits menu style would suit the game perfectly.

That's a nice one too. The menus and options really need some organisational work too. They seem to have some options in the top menu, but then there's other cross-machine settings in the menu you can only see after launching that table. They should be clearly indicated if they're per-table controls or global settings and all global settings should be accessible from the top menu as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Craig Grannell]

Does anyone else think it would be cool if you selected the table in a virtual arcade like the Xbox 360 Hall of Fame game?

Midway Arcade more or less does this on the iPad and I really can't think of a more cumbersome and tiresome means of accessing games. It reminds me of the Red Dwarf DVDs from the BBC—in order to access an episode, you have to suffer a dull 3D render of some spaceship or other. Personally, I just want to get to the meat—the games. In Pinball Arcade, I'd kill* for a nicely designed but extremely straightforward alphabetical list of games, rather than the current swiping model, which is increasingly irksome as more tables are added. (Note I'm not entirely against other UI conventions, but just give me the option to scroll through the list in a second and access any table really quickly, rather than SWIPE! SWIPE! SWIPE! SWIPE! SWIPE!)

* Well, perhaps not 'kill'. Maim. Ish.

 

[Kolchak357]

I'd settle for a bunch of buttons that look like the app logo. What I mean is a silver ball for each table with the table logo on it. Simple, small, and keeps the feel of pinball.

 

[stevesabol]

I hate that users have to know *when* a table was released in TPA to know where it is in the list.

I'd much rather have the ability to toggle a list by: original release date (not TPA, but the original real-world release), name, manufacturer, ranking (either user driven or IPDB), and, finally TPA release.

 

[Fungi]

Original release date would be cool. It'd be like scrolling thru the evolution of pinball.

 

[Craig Grannell]

I'd like accessibility for non-aficiondoes to be clearer. I love this game and am a fan of pinball, but I don't have The Big Book Of Pinball Facts in my head, hence a hope for an alphabetically ordered list. (I know when I want to play Black Hole. I don't want to have to remember where it's located in the swipey list.)

Anyway, below is what I was thinking, as knocked up in a two-minute Photoshop job. Note this is ugly as hell, but is merely there to showcase positioning on a touch device (iPhone, iPad, etc.) This view would provide the tables in alphabetical order, using their logos and maybe having some other image behind them. This could, I guess, also show manufacturer/year in wee text, but I didn't add that. Titles could scroll under the PA logo and buttons at the bottom. Pull down from the first table and the search field would appear (something that's commonplace in iOS), along with a sort menu, which could provide options like by name, year and manufacturer. I'm sure with more than two-minutes' thought a UI designer could do something pretty amazing with this basic concept.